Governor Lolo Moliga has several reasons to be cautious about joining Samoa’s Tui Samoa Cable.
One that was revealed for the first time in a story in the Samoa Observer yesterday is that the territory would end up paying $US12 million to be part of the cable, not $US4 million which a delegation from Samoa had first mentioned.
Governor Lolo told the Samoa Observer that at the end of a presentation by the Tui Samoa Cable and Samoa Government officials who visited the territory, in response to questions from Aoe’e Adolfo Montenegro, it was discovered that in the end American Samoa will pay $12 million.
The governor also says in the newspaper report that since American Samoa will be seeking funding from the federal government to fund its share of the Samoa cable, the feds have concerns about the cable being laid through foreign countries.
Countries which have expressed interest in the Tui Samoa Cable include Wallis and Futuna and Tuvalu.
Lolo shared similar sentiments to what he expressed to KHJ News last month, that while there are economic benefits, and the cable would be a joint project with Samoa, many issues need to be clarified.
And the meetings with the Samoa delegation that visited the territory last month left many questions unanswered.
